1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a map display device and to a program therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional vehicle map display devices (navigation devices) allow a destination to be set by input of an address. Some conventional map display devices retrieve a destination by inputting an address of the destination as a hierarchical series of inputs, i.e., on an administrative district-to-district basis in decreasing order of district size, for example: Administrative divisions of Japan (the Tokyo metropolitan area, Hokkaido, and other prefectures) → Municipalities (Cities, Wards, Towns and Villages) → Large hamlets (“Ooaza”—a large collection of dwellings) → Small hamlets (“Koaza”—a small collection of dwellings) → House number. Every inputted address of a retrieved point is stored as a historic record of past inputted addresses. The historic record of the inputted addresses of previously retrieved points are presented to the user in the form of a list. This list simplifies the process of point retrieval where the user wishes to retrieve a point previously retrieved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,200 discloses a map display device which allows the user to retrieve a point slightly distanced from a previously retrieved point having an address listed in the historic record of inputted addresses of the previously retrieved points. In this prior art system the point closest to his/her desired point is selected from the list, and a scrollable map that covers the desired point is displayed.
For retrieving a new point, the conventional map display device requires the user to input an address of the new point on an administrative district-to-district basis; from the broadest administrative division down to a house number. In other words, the user must input an address on a different input display (page) for each level of the hierarchy of addresses. This is time-consuming and bothersome. This problem becomes worse when the new point has an address similar to the address of a previously retrieved point. Regardless of the similarity between the address of the new point and the address of a previously retrieved point, the conventional map display device requires the user to input the address of the new point from the beginning by selecting each administrative district in decreasing order of district size, which is wasteful of the user's time.